donrhummy

The U.S. Department of Transportation is offering to fund congestion-pricing experiments as part of a $1.2 billion program to cut traffic jams. Anyone here got a suggestion? LOL.

https://www.dot.gov/affairs/dot5706.htm

pj7

If they'd just raise the speed limit and keep those pesky cycling guys off the road things would be fine.

Icycle

Of course I would love it if people would get out of their cars and ride their bikes, but I'm a realist. As long as gas is cheap, and freeways and parking are free, people will continue to drive. So I do applaud efforts to introduce congestion charges for freeways, and for entering city centers, because it actually reduces the amount the people drive. It gives them an economic incentive to choose other options.

wheel

typical knee jerk reaction.
Considering the Bicycle commuter act is not law.
We ship everything by a truck rahter than rail.
And everyone knows more lanes doesn't solve the problem.

gcl8a

The best line: "Congestion Hurts Families".

Think of the children!

donrhummy

Can we please do away with this myth? Right now as gas prices continue to rise, so does driving! That's right, they've found that the rising gas prices have done nothing to cut down on driving cars. And it is expensive now, not cheap.

fat_bike_nut

That's right. No matter how high prices go, all people will do is complain about it for a week. Then when they realize the government doesn't give a crap, they'll try to find ways to continue paying for gas. I remember seeing news reports about people in Texas selling or pawning heirlooms, jewelry, expensive furniture, and the like, all to get enough money to pay for a week's worth of gas.

rajman

Because carpooling, grouping trips, or using more fuel efficient cars is much more difficult than pawning heirlooms... People want to drive, and many will pay whatever it takes, even if it does limit them financially. Perhaps this 'oil addiction' is like a gambling addiction.

eofelis 

I had read something somewhere like:

...adding lanes to eliminate traffic congestion is like loosening your belt to cure obesity....

Roody

Actually miles driven did go down last year, for the first time since the gas crisis of the 1970s, and the only reason I can see is that gas prices were up. Also, although prices have risen some, they're still not very high for the average person's budget. Right now, poor people are being hurt by gas prices, but it'll be a while before the middle class is hit hard enough to really feel it.

gwd

It is more than congestion-pricing experiments like London's successful
program.
Here's a quote from the downloadable .PDF:
What does commodification of the ability to travel mean?
I understand that some toll roads and bridges have been
privately owned but this initiative sounds open ended.
Some of our bike paths become congested during peak
hours. Maybe the Washington Area Bicyclists Association
could purchase the most congested paths. WABA could issue
bonds that are repaid with tolls and an E-Z pass system and
congestion pricing.

During the peak spring and fall weekends and morning
and evening rush hours the fee could be a modest $5.00 per
mile, during inclement weather the serious user could get a
discount. By giving multi-use paths and sidewalks over to
private ownership, the market will ensure that they are used
optimally for the greatest good. Right?

Wogster

Well, there are only four ways to cut congestion, and only four ways:

1) Build a bigger road, problem is, it costs a lot of money, and is temporary at best, I am sure that the next 2-3 years will bring gridlock to Boston's underground expressway, and it cost over $14 Billion to build.

2) Add a congestion charge, fine in places like New York or Chicago where the transit system is already very good to excellent, so that travellers can simply divert to the existing transit system. Does not work, where you do not have the infrastructure in place to handle the drivers who don't want to pay it, because it just becomes another cost of driving, people will probably not re-elect the politicians that voted for it.

3) Increase fuel taxes, and use the new tax to pay for transit improvements, this works, but it often takes a lot of money, it's not uncommon to spend several Billion on a single line, fine if your looking at say reducing congestion on a specific highway, but you also need to consider how people will get to the new line.

4) Rework the system to make it more pedestrian and cyclist friendly, this could mean blocking off lanes, repainting roads to add bike lanes, adding foot traffic lanes, reducing speed limits, eliminating parking areas, in other words, you reduce congestion, by increasing it, to the point where people pick the alternative, because it's easier.

You could combine 3 & 4, providing your new transit line has stations close enough together, and has plenty of bike parking.

Icycle

Gasoline has a low price elasticity over the short term, which means it takes large changes in price to make small changes in demand. If we have elevated prices over a longer term, people will begin to make structural changes to reduce their demand, like replacing their cars with more fuel efficient models.

It is only in the last two years or so that gasoline prices have started to approach the inflation adjusted peak price from 1980, so I'm not surprised that there has been relatively little demand reduction yet.

Also, relatively to the rest of the world, our gasoline prices are quite low. Most industrialized nations have much higher tax rates on their gasoline, and if you look at the correlation between vehicle miles travelled and the pump price of gasoline, you find that those countries with the lowest gas prices drive the most and those with the highest gas prices drive the least.

The countries with historically high gas taxes have an advantage, because they have been investing in alternative transportation for decades, so they already have a strong infrastructure in place for those who choose to reduce their driving. It will take us a long time to catch up to them.

But I do believe that if we put in place a gas tax that raised gas prices to somewhere in the $6-$10 per gallon range, it would have an impact on people's driving choices. This is what I mean by high gas prices.